Pittsburgh and Syracuse may not be leaving the Big East for the ACC for another two years, but the Panthers and Orange know now which ACC divisions they’ll be in. Pittsburgh will compete in the ACC’s Coastal Division, while Syracuse will be in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, the ACC’s athletic directors voted Friday.

The ACC also voted to increase its league football schedule from eight to nine conference games when the Panthers and Orange come on board.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse aren’t scheduled to join the ACC until July 1, 2014. However, that timetable could get moved up depending on if West Virginia is allowed to leave the Big East early for the Big 12. West Virginia is trying to join the Big 12 this fall, while the Big East is trying to make the Mountaineers honor the league’s exit agreement and stay until June 30, 2014.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse have not indicated they would pursue legal action, like West Virginia has, to leave the Big East before 2014, but sources told CBSSports.com that both schools are monitoring West Virginia’s situation and would try to join the ACC early if the Mountaineers are able to leave before 2014.

ACC commissioner John Swofford wouldn’t speculate on Pittsburgh and Syracuse joining the ACC before 2014. “First of all, (that decision) is between Pitt and Syracuse and the Big East,” Swofford said.

However, if the Panthers and Orange can leave before 2014, the ACC will be ready.

“The fact we made our decision how we will schedule and compete certainly helps us (when they join),” Swofford said. “In terms of when that time may come, I don’t want to get into a hypothetical of this or that. Our position continues to be that we want to prepare ourselves when they’re ready and it’s appropriate for them to join us.”

If West Virginia leaves the Big East before 2014, it will likely have to pay a substantial financial penalty to the Big East. Swofford would not speculate whether the ACC would assist Pitt and Syracuse financially to assist them if they were able to leave the Big East early.

The ACC is expected to announce its 2012 football schedule in the next two weeks, so even if WVU and the Big East settles in the coming days it's unlikely Pitt and Syracuse would be able to join for the 2012-13 school year. Before the 2013 season is a more realisitic possibility.

Whenever they do get to the ACC, Pittsburgh will join Miami, Georgia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Coastal Division. Syracuse will join Clemson, Florida State, N.C. State, Boston College, Maryland and Wake Forest in the Atlantic.

The current primary crossover partners will remain consistent with Syracuse and Pitt becoming primary crossover partners with each other.

When Pitt and Syracuse join the ACC, the league will play a nine-game conference football schedule. The format will consist of each team playing all six in its division each year, plus its primary crossover partner each year and two rotating opponents from the opposite division.

“We’ve been evaluating (eight or nine-game league schedules) since back in the fall,” Swofford said. “We want to see and play each other as much as reasonably possible.”

Swofford also said that adding conference television inventory (more ACC games) also was beneficial.

This six-year cycle allows each team to play each divisional opponent and its primary crossover partner six times (three home and three away) while also playing each rotating crossover opponent two times (one home and one away).

In basketball, the ACC will play an 18-game conference schedule beginning in the 2012-13 school year.

After Pitt and Syracuse join, each school will have one primary partner (Boston College and Syracuse; Clemson and Georgia Tech; Duke and North Carolina; Florida State and Miami; Maryland and Pitt; N.C. State and Wake Forest; Virginia and Virginia Tech).

The scheduling model will be based on a three-year cycle during which teams will play every league opponent at least once with the primary partners playing home and away annually while the other 12 rotate in groups of four: one year both home and away; one year at home only; and one year away only. Over the course of the three-year cycle primary partners play a total of six times and all other conference opponents play four times.

The format allows each program to see opponents with more regularity and creates an increase in competitive balance throughout the teams.

The league also determined that all 14 league members will qualify for the ACC men's and women’s basketball tournaments. However, how the tournaments will be formatted will be announced at a later date.

Now that the 2011 college football season is finally completed – Bobby Hebert’s done ranting about Les Miles, right? – let’s take a look at how smart or, make that clueless, the voters in the Associated Press poll were before the season.

I was one of the 60 voters that participated in the AP poll. Each summer we’re asked to produce a Top 25 out of thin air. And then come January, we discover we’re usually as accurate as a non-fiction piece from James Frey.

Surprisingly, though, this year we did a fairly decent job of predicting the future or, if you prefer, the teams did a decent job of living up to their preseason rankings.

First the good.

We nailed it! Of the AP’s preseason Top 25 teams, three schools – No. 7 Stanford, No. 14 TCU and No. 19 Georgia – finished with the same ranking in the final AP poll.

That leaves seven schools that were ranked in the preseason Top 25 but plummeted out of the rankings by season’s end because (take your pick) they choked under the pressure of a preseason Top 25 ranking, didn’t deserve to be ranked, were overrated, underachieved or all of the above.

We/they totally blew it: Here they are: the not-so-Magnificent Seven teams that were ranked in the preseason Top 25 but ended the season outside the Top 25. No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 18 Ohio State, No. 20 Mississippi State, No. 21 Missouri, No. 22 Florida and No. 23 Auburn all finished out of the Top 25.

We never saw them coming: There were 48 schools that received at least one vote in the preseason Top 25 poll. Yet, there were four schools that did not receive a single preseason vote that still finished in the final top 25: Baylor (finishing No. 13), Kansas State (finishing No. 15), Clemson (finishing No. 22) and Cincinnati (finishing No. 25).

Three other schools received Top 25 preseason votes and were not in the preseason Top 25 but finished in the AP final poll: No. 12 Michigan, No. 18 Houston and No. 20 Southern Miss.

So who were the biggest surprises and disappointments of 2011? Look no further than the Big 12, which had the nation's two most pleasant surprises in Baylor and Kansas State and the nation's biggest disappointment in Texas A&M.

Listed below are the 48 schools that received a vote in the preseason Top 25 and the difference of how many spots better (+) or worse (-) it finished in the final Top 25 rankings. Following the school is each team’s preseason and final ranking. If a school started unranked and finished unranked, it was considered starting/finishing at No. 49.

NEW ORLEANS – Based on Alabama’s dominating performance in Monday night’s BCS title game, the Crimson Tide are ranked No. 1 on my final Associated Press ballot.

Alabama (12-1) was ranked No. 3 on my final regular season ballot, but the Tide were impressive enough to leap LSU and Oklahoma State. LSU (13-1) may have had the most impressive regular season in college football history, but I only ranked the Tigers No. 2

Despite Oklahoma State’s victory against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, I dropped the Cowboys from No. 2 to No. 3. Their victory wasn’t dominating enough for me to keep Oklahoma State (12-1) in my top two.

Here is my final AP ballot for 2011. Last week’s rankings in parenthesis.

STILLWATER, Okla. – With Oklahoma State’s dominating victory against Oklahoma, earning the Cowboys their first Big 12 championship, I moved OSU up to No. 2 on my final regular season Associated Press ballot.

If there’s any doubt, the Tigers (5-0) are very much for real. The Hokies (4-1), who finally survived their non-conference schedule unscathed, were exposed as, at best, an average team.

In their 4-0 start the Tigers had gained at least 443 yards in all four games. But against Virginia Tech it was their defense that was the difference.

The Hokies were held without a touchdown at home for the first time since 1995 and held to their fewest points since a 22-3 loss at Boston College in 2006.

Virginia Tech had won 13 of its last 14 home games in ACC play and had won 12 consecutive regular season ACC games. But the Hokies were absolutely no match for Clemson. It got so bad that in the second half Hokies fans were reduced to cheering a 29-yard punt – their punting is that bad.

Now that Clemson is 5-0 – the Tigers, who started the season unranked and unloved, have a very manageable schedule the rest of the way. There are home games with Boston College, North Carolina and Wake Forest and road games at Maryland, Georgia Tech, NC State and South Carolina.

Clemson should be favored the rest of the way out, except for the road trips at Georgia Tech and South Carolina.

Take a good long look at the top 10 teams in the Associated Press preseason poll released today because based on the past decade, chances are at least one will not finish the season ranked in the Top 25. Who do you think that team will be?

In the past 10 years, nine teams ranked in the preseason Top 10 finished the season out of the Top 25 in the final poll.

Since 2001, Tennessee has been the biggest preseason bust. The Volunteers were ranked No. 3 in the 2005 preseason poll, but finished 5-6 and unranked.

The Volunteers also have the distinction of being the only school in the last 10 years that finished the season not in the final rankings twice after being ranked among the top 10 preseason teams.

In 2002, Tennessee was No. 5 in the preseason poll, but an 8-5 record left the Volunteers out of the Top 25. Last season, Texas also was No. 5 in the preseason poll, but finished 5-7.

In the last 10 years 26 percent of the teams – or 6.5 teams per year – that were ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll were not ranked in the final AP poll. Last year, nine teams ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll were nowhere to be found when the final poll was released led by preseason No. 5 Texas.

Here’s a look at the biggest busts based on the AP preseason poll since 2001: